Friday, May 23, 2014

Making a Drawing of a Suspect

Jesse settled down on my yoga mat this morning and refused to budge. Nothing to do but draw him as he thoroughly groomed himself and then rolled a few turns and finally trotted off.

P and I went for a dinner picnic with sandwiches from Katuah Market (my night to cook, true, but I DID drive to get them AND paid). As we sat in the spot where the trail overlooks a meadow and a little mountain peeking over the grasses I made a couple of quick landscape notes. We also noticed that the great Solomon's Seal plants are blooming like never before. I drew part of a dangle of blooms-- they are perfectly delicate and arranged in pairs except for the first two from the end. At the bottom of this page is a sketch of my phone, which I started early this morning when Jesse was biting it. But Jesse moved before I could draw him; so just the phone.

But on the right is the real prize for today! Actually, two days ago this billy goat walked down the middle of our street and stopped in our front yard and chewed on some weeds. I wasn't home, but P watched him for a while. Then he called the farm manager from the college farm, who came out, took a look, and said it wasn't one of their animals. The farm manager called animal control who came and got the goat, but I was very disappointed that he was gone when I got home. I would have loved to have seen that billy goat.

P picked him out from a lineup of billy goat images that I showed him on my laptop; then he qualified the image that he picked out , and I drew the goat from P's description with reference to the lineup image. This is why all those police suspect drawings look like they're made by beginning drawing students.
P: He was scrufty, not all smooth like the picture.
Me: How, exactly?
P: the horns were shorter, not flat, not like that, no---- sort of stumpy? And he had a stringy beard.
Me: what color was he?
P: brown and gray--no, white too-- more gray
Me: Like this?
P: Well he looked more weather beaten, like he had been living on his own for a while.
Me: How did that look?
P: Just-- weather beaten, rough. Maybe he was one of the goats from the dentists' office?
Me: But that was last fall! How could he still be living around here?
P: Well there's plenty of food.

About Me

Real Life Journals is about designing, building, and using journals that help keep your sometimes wobbly little boat afloat. I see this blog as a chance to expand on, question, and make corrections to my recent book of the same title.